


Once Upon A Dream

by FallenEpiphany



Category: Captain America, Marvel, The Avengers
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-18
Updated: 2014-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-17 20:09:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2321765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenEpiphany/pseuds/FallenEpiphany
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set two months after the 'fall' of S.H.I.E.L.D.<br/>Bucky is now in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D and is struggling to reconcile the man he was with the man he has become.<br/>Rachel Reid is a psychiatrist and is unknowingly following in her deceased father's footsteps.<br/>Hydra is not dead and Bucky holds answers to S.H.I.E.L.D's questions somewhere in his troubled mind.<br/>It's difficult to know who to trust.<br/>With S.H.I.E.L.D rebuilding itself, a world of lies, deceit and murder is opening up.<br/>All the while a shadow still haunts Rachel's dreams. Rating and warning may change as the story progresses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam

**Author's Note:**

> AN : So after watching and re-watching Captain America : The Winter Solider 173 times or so, I realised that I had couldn't leave the story as it was for two years. So I began to plot and plan and cultivate this little story - which is all it is right now. As with most of my fics - this story will contain an Original Character. If you aren't keen on OC's then there's a back button on the top left of the screen that will take you out of this story.  
> I own nothing but my OC, all credit goes to Marvel for their amazing stories and characters that I am merely borrowing.  
> Any lyrics used are the rightful property of their writers.

Voices, loud and angry mad the floor vibrate beneath her feet. She rubbed her tired eyes and shuffled across the room. It was still dark out, it wasn't morning yet.

Her stuffed bear trailed, loved and limp at her side.

''They will never be able to use it without me!'' The voice, now singular grew louder now, shaking with a mix of nerves and defiance.  
She stood, bleary eyed on the landing, squinting as the dim light from below made it's way up the stairs. There were two shadows. When the second shadow spoke, she could not understand the hard words.

''то вы умрете...''

Tiny feet on made no sound on the soft carpet of the stairs but the voices stopped suddenly.

In her sleepy stupor she did not know that there was something wrong until she was standing at the bottom of the stairs and peering between the railings, with drooping eyelids that squinted in the light.

''Daddy?'' Where there had been two shadows, now only one man stood.

Her father was standing some twelve feet away, the wide double doors of the dining room had been thrown open and he was standing in front of the table, looking rather distressed. His brown hair, showing the first signs of grey hairs was askew, his perpetually perfectly ironed shirt was creased and bunched.  
He turned wild-eyed and stared at her incredulously.  
''Rachel?'' his mouth formed her name but no sound emerged.

Confused, the five year old stumbled forward, seeking her father's embrace with arms outstretched, the bear hanging limply as she moved.

''No.'' his voice came loud and stern now and he held up a hand to stop her.  
''Rachel, go back to bed.'' He barked.

Tears sprang forth with impressive speed, it was not like her father to be so stern, daddy's little girl through and through, Rachel had never been spurned by him. Confusion reigned and Rachel did not move.

They shared a look then, father and daughter.  
Rachel sniffed and buried her nose into her bear, closing her eyes tightly as the beginnings of a tantrum welled up inside her.

There was an almost deafening bang and a thump that made her scream so loudly that the next door neighbours hurried to call 911, and she covered her ears, dropping the old bear in fear and falling back onto the floor.

When she opened her eyes, she saw him. The blood pooled on the floor, staining the white rug her mother loved so dearly, his brown eyes gaping wide, but unseeing.

In her fear, shock and inability to fully comprehend the situation, she never did mention that second shadow to the nice police officers. She never knew why, but she felt it was something that ought not be mentioned, and eventually, years later when her father's suicide stung a little less, she dreamt about that shadow, and that voice. But she wondered if it was not just that - a dream.


	2. It's who we are Doesn't matter if we've gone too far Doesn't matter if it's all okay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So first couple of chapters are probably going to be a little bit short as there's going to be quite a lot of POV changes. This is not a song fic, but there will most likely be a lot of music and lyric references. I will do my best to put title of any songs used in either the chapter title or the chapter itself in the AN.  
> Without giving too much away, please note that there will be a lot of medical terms used throughout this fic. Unfortunately I am not a Doctor or a Nurse, so anything that sounds made up - probably is.  
> Song used : Imagine Dragons - Who We Are.

The cat stretched and yawned claws curling in and out of the duvet, she peered imperiously at the snoring dog.  
Her human was not yet awake, but it was already bright outside. Falling from the bed with a near silent, soft thump, it padded to the door.  
Much to the cat's frustration, the door was closed. Her food bowl was on the other side of the door.

Time to wake the human up.

The loud wailing yowl from Luna and the booming bark from Allie made Rachel sit bolt upright with a gasp.  
The golden Labrador's tail hit her bed in repetitive loud concessions. Luna rubbed against the door, purring softly, and mewling all the while.  
''Okay. Okay I'm up.'' Rachel yawned loudly and held up her hands in defence. Her muscles were stiff as she hauled her legs over the side of her bed and groaned, attempting to rub life back into her body.

She moved with the jarred gait of a much older person. Slipping into her flip-flops, and placing a hand on the wall for a moment of much needed support, Rachel tugged the door open and Luna scurried off, tail held high – towards her food bowl.  
''Come on then.'' Rachel motioned for Allie to follow. Which the dog did, with such fervour that Rachel was almost knocked off of her feet as Allie hurried across the wooden floor, slipping and sliding in a manner that would have been comical if Rachel had not had a sudden savage urge for caffeine.

''Well good morning to you too.'' Rachel huffed, her flip-flops slapped off the floor as she shuffled along the corridor, pulling a hair tie from her wrist, hoisting her hair into an exceptionally messy pony tail

Luna hollered from the kitchen counter, weaving in between the appliances - her round belly indicating that she was in dire need of nutrition.

''Alright, alright.'' Dodging the dancing dog she picked up both their food bowls and quickly filled them. She was barely able to put them in place when the beasts were devouring them.  
''You're both getting fat.'' she shot at them, but then shook her head and smiled.

Rachel rolled her eyes then, and stepping between them, she reached up to the medicine cabinet, feeling around she pulled down the bottle of L-dopa and downed two with a mouthful of water straight from the tap. She flicked the small radio by the coffee machine on and the local news reporters dulcet tones filled the kitchen.  
''-two months since the incident involving the suspected hijacking of three Helicarriers over the capital-''

From her bedroom, she heard her alarm sound off and she groaned.

Thirty minutes later, Rachel was feeling somewhat more limber as the Levodopa coursed through her system and her muscles relaxed somewhat, lifting her mood considerably.  
Coffee in hand and goodbyes said, Rachel was out the door with keys in hand. She lived on a reasonably up-scale street - her father's life insurance had paid out handsomely after his death and seen to it that both she and her mother lived a relatively comfortable life.

The authorities had looked into it first of course, because several days before his suicide, his policy had been upgraded to allow for such. Any seemingly suspicious circumstances were quickly dismissed however. The Reid family found themselves splashed through local tabloids for a couple of weeks.  
'Tragedy as brilliant Professor of Neuroscience takes own life. Leaves wife and daughter distraught.'

Mercifully, it hadn't lasted very long. It blew over, as these things often do.  
Rachel had had her photo in the paper after her graduation. A nice little article about how the daughter of the late great Conrad Reid was making a name for herself, against all odds, graduated top of her class - her mother had scoffed at the quote.   
''Against all odds? My daughter? Bah!''  
Yet her mother had still cut the piece from the paper, and five years later it was still stuck to her damn fridge.

As if Eliza Reid somehow knew that her daughter was thinking of her, Rachel's cell thrummed loudly from the depths of her bag.  
''Hey.'' She gasped, swallowing a mouthful of coffee that was so hot, she was sure it would burn a hole in her tongue.  
''Rach hi, how are you?'' her mother's voice was awash with a million worries and emotions.  
''Fine, just on my way to work.'' Rachel shifted the phone so it sat between her ear and her shoulder as she unlocked the side gate to the house and found her bicycle perched against the wall.  
''Taking a cab?'' her mother asked hopefully.  
Rachel rolled her eyes. ''A cab? In New York? It's like a ten minute cycle to the subway. Why would I take a cab?''

She heard a resounding sigh from the other end of the line. ''I just wish you would look after yourself a little better.''  
Rachel tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice, ''Mom you're being a helicopter again. Stop hovering, I'm fine.''  
Her mother's love for Rachel knew no bounds, but this early in the morning, it was just downright smothering. Before she asked her final parting question – the same damn question she asked every time they spoke – Rachel beat her to it.  
''I took it first thing this morning, same as every morning. Now I love you and I will ring you tonight, but I am going to be late and my coffee is going cold. Bye mom.'' As touched the end call button, Rachel could hear her mother's final shrill warning of the dangers of cycling and drinking coffee.

She rooted out her headphones and set her favourite playlist to shuffle before stuffing her phone back into the messy depths of her handbag. Rachel slung it across her shoulders, with coffee in hand, she gingerly placed a leg over the bike and set off at a leisurely pace down the street.

The subway was an exceptionally short distance away, but cycling gave her body a concussion free stretch in the morning. She had not taken two sips from her coffee when she was chaining her bike to the railing and hurrying down the stairs.

''Up in the morning, up in the evening, picking down clocks, when the birds come out to eat...'' She sang softly – and rather off key under her breath as she weaved in and out of the crowds. For of her many talents, singing was not one of them - though that did not stop her. 

The hustle and bustle of her morning routine was something Rachel revelled in, the sheer normality of jostling for a decent spot in the crowded sub-car, trying desperately not to spill her still steaming – thank god for thermal flasks – coffee.

The Subway left her only a thirteen minute walk from the Hospital. It was so much easier than owning her own car. Trying to navigate the sheer madness that was New York traffic was not something she could ever enjoy.  
Scanning her key card, she slipped in through the staff door of the New York University Medical Centre, and expansive hospital towering over Kips Bay.  
Headphones remaining firmly in place she nodded and smiled and bade good morning to those she met. Riding the elevator up to the twenty third floor, she narrowly avoided Doctor Shane Scott - a sleezball of the highest order - by diving into a nurses station and hiding from him in the most mature fashion she could muster.

Tracie, her P.A/secretary/confidant and all round right hand was sitting in her plush leather chair, at her exceptionally need desk outside Rachel's office.  
''Mornin' Doc.'' Tracie beamed as Rachel tugged out one of her earphones.  
''Hey Trace.'' Rachel smiled softly and held out her arms as she was handed a stack of folders covered in sticky notes.

''Is this all today's?'' she asked weakly.  
''Uh-huh.'' Tracie blew a bubble with some electric blue bubblegum.  
''How am I for time?'' Rachel asked, backing into her office.  
''Thirty five minutes until your first appointment.'' Tracie's eyes were back on her monitor, and without pausing her rapid fire typing, she answered the phone on it's first shrill ring with a pleasant and warm greeting.

''Good morning, you've reached the office of Doctor Rachel Reid, this is Tracie speaking how may I help you today?''

Rachel shut the door lightly behind her with her foot. Frowning a lightly as she let the hefty stack of folders smack onto her oak desk.  
She stretched lightly, and checked her appearance quickly in the mirror before setting her bag aside and settling into her chair, ready for whatever the days was going to throw her way.

Or at least that's what she thought.


End file.
